Hong Kong Picasso sale aims to tap China demand

A blockbuster auction of Contemporary art in New York, including a record $58.4 million for a Jackson Pollock drip painting, fetched nearly half a billion dollars -- the biggest haul ever at an art auction.

Master works by Monet, Picasso and Gauguin will be highlights of a spring auction of impressionist and modern art next week in New york."We are feeling confident and expect a very busy few days," said Conor Jordan, head of auction house Christie's Impressionist & Modern Art. The sales are expected to make in total some 160 million dollars.Claude Monet's 1891 oil painting masterpiece "Les Peupliers," valued between 20 and 30 million dollars, is one of the main attractions at the Impressionist and Modern evening sale on May 3.

Why is late Picasso enjoying a surge in demand? In London this week, Sotheby’s and Christie’s held their regular June auctions of Impressionist and Modern Art. Christie’s evening sale realised a total of GBP37m ($60.4m), while Sotheby’s brought in GBP33.5m. Although Sotheby’s revenue was lower, it was deemed the greater success as their auction had a higher sell-through rate—85% by lot and 91% by value versus Christie’s 68% by lot and 84% by value. For auction houses, prices are significant but unscuppered trades are the imperative.

With many of China’s wealthy elite turning away from public displays of wealth and enjoying high-priced toys within the privacy of their own homes, new status symbols like antique cars and grand pianos are joining the ranks of popular stealth buys.

A rare water lily painting by Claude Monet will star among dozens of modern masterpieces this month in what is being billed as the "most valuable" art auction ever held in London, Christie's said Thursday.Painted in 1906, the work is part of the French Impressionist's iconic Nympheas series and was included in his historic exhibition in Paris three years later, the auction house said.Christie's said it expected the London sale of 63 modern and impressionist artworks on June 23 to raise between 163 and 231 million pounds (196/276 million euros, 240/338 million dollars).

SÃO PAULO — On a recent afternoon, 10 of Lucas Arruda’s brooding, impressionistic landscapes sat on the floor of São Paulo’s Mendes Wood gallery, waiting to be hung for a preview show the next night.   The 28-year-old artist is in the vanguard of a group of young São Paulo painters who embody the creative and commercial growth in Brazilian contemporary art.  

A celebrated masterpiece by Pablo Picasso sold Tuesday at Sotheby's auction house in London for 25.2 million pounds, more than double its pre-auction valuation."La Lecture" is a work from the Spanish painter's "annus mirabilis," 1932, and depicts the artist's famous muse, Marie-Therese Walter. The painting was sold for the equivalent of 40.7 million dollars or 29.7 million euros.Its expected sale price was 12 million pounds.